Palestinian

children since 2000

Israel has killed more than 3,000 children since 28 September 2000 when the Second Intifada began until the end of April 2017, a new report has found.

The Palestinian Ministry of Information said in a report released ahead of Children’s Day that the Israeli forces have injured more than 13,000 children and arrested more than 12,000 others, and continues to hold 300 children in its prisons.

The report published yesterday said that 95 per cent of children were tortured and assaulted during their detention.

On average, the report said, Israeli forces arrest nearly 700 children annually, but this has increased since the start of the Jerusalem Intifada in October 2015. Nearly 2,000 children were arrested between October 2015 and November 2016.

The report noted that school students are subjected to violations at the Israeli military checkpoints at the entrances to Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps, warning that the Israeli policies establish a dangerous economic situation in the northern Jordan Valley and force Palestinian children to drop out of school.

The children face the problem of widespread poverty because of the deteriorating economic situation and the ongoing blockade, especially in the Gaza Strip, forcing many of them to leave their schools and move to the labour market.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Labour’s latest report, there are 102,000 Palestinian children under the age of 18 currently in the labour market compared with 65,000 in 2011.

Up to 20,000 Palestinian workers are employed in Israeli agricultural settlements, including 5.5 per cent of children aged 13-16 years old who earn a wage equivalent to one-third of the Israeli minimum wage.

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A sign marks the entrance to White Earth Indian Reservation in Mahnomen County, Minn. (J. Stephen Conn / CC 2.0)
WHITE EARTH RESERVATION, Minn.—Candice (not her real name) awoke with a start. Someone was pulling down her sweatpants. It was a male friend.
“Stop!” she shouted.
He kept groping her. She kicked him and he fell off the bed. She dashed out of the bedroom, tripping and tumbling down the stairs. Gripped with fear, she heard his footsteps behind her in the dark and forced herself to stand upright as she staggered out to the porch.
Candice was still intoxicated. She got into her car and drove into a ditch. A white police officer pulled up. She struggled to hold back tears as she told him about the attempted rape.
All the officer saw was a drunk and disorderly Native American woman. He dismissed Candice’s report of sexual assault as a lie she had made up to avoid getting a DUI. He did not take her to the hospital for a forensic exam. The sexual assault was not recorded in his pol…